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Sunday, January 30, 2011

Late this morning Jim and I went for a ride in the State Park. We wanted to see first hand how much of the park was open and I'm happy to report that all the road ways are open so biking is a pleasure once again. The hawk tower trail is still closed as is the boat ramp to the resaca.

it would be nice to paddle around the resaca because it looks like the water is up a couple feet

This afternoon was the open house at Retama Village next door. They had free hot dogs, popcorn and cold water. We rode over and checked out the new house and a couple of the coach houses. We go every year so we didn't have to see everything. We ladies were getting over heated (temperature was above 80!) and decided we'd seen enough so led the way home.

Once home Jim, Pat, Anne and I sat on our patio enjoying the breeze and cold drinks. That beer sure tasted good! Vern and Scotty came over and enjoyed some cold beers too. Not sure how long the six of us sat there but we enjoyed the company of our friends.

For dinner we had tacos and I just had to take pictures of our sunset. Most of the pictures are on Facebook. It was a perfect ending to our beautiful day. It's hard to believe that in a few days we'll have freezing temperatures.

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. ~John Ruskin

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Sunday, January 23, 2011

last night was the annual dance and a good time was had by all. Some hippies (plan was hatched a year ago) showed up and protested the lack of 60's songs!

everyone thought Dave looked like Sonny Bono

Scotty, Anne, Dave, Karen and Linda and Dan from our table were in full Hippie mode and dress. Our friends Pat and Vern (Elvis) also joined in the fun

They even had a sit in with signs

Dave and Karen won the costume contest. there was also a bubble blowing contest and limbo. Not to many takers for the Limbo contest.....I guess we're getting a wee bit old for that but there was a handful who tried

I made beef stew yesterday and shared it with the Scott's. Today we had brats and potato salad on the patio. Anne made the salad, Jim cooked the brats and we had deviled eggs and olives. It was nice eating outside.

Jim spent time on the roof today repairing an AC cover and cleaning the fins. We've been having trouble with the bedroom AC and hopefully it will work better now. Scotty helped Jim and I must say having two men wandering around on the roof made me nervous!

Not sure where the lady bugs are coming from but we've seen a lot of them lately, inside and out. Inside I can understand, they're just trying to stay warm.

On Friday we had lunch with Marilyn and Ed Dray. We met this couple in Colorado Springs a few years ago and we enjoy their company. They met us at a restaurant they discovered in Weslaco, Garden Gourmet a vegetarian restaurant. It was a chilly day and we all had soup, either black bean or tortilla. Jim had a sandwich and the rest of us had the Greek salad. I enjoyed everything!

Friday, January 14, 2011

Four days without sunshine and the solar lights just don't work! It was warmer today getting into the mid 50 range after three days of 30-40 degree temperatures. I think we still have a couple more days of yucky weather.

I thought I'd share some pictures of the Christmas Cactus.....

this was taken today

this was taken a few days ago before 'winter' arrived

first day a bloom opened

This is about the only thing that is doing well from the garden. I pulled up the cucumbers and squashes. Many things contributed to their demise, wind mostly, but I also think they needed bigger containers.

For dinner tonight I made up my own concoction. Browned some chicken then sauteed onions, celery and garlic. Then I added some zucchini and mushrooms. After these all cooked for a bit I added a can of diced tomatoes, a can of red beans (drained) and a can of broth. Seasoned it with Italian Seasoning and simmered for about 20 minuets. Served in a bowl over tri-colored spiral pasta. Pretty tasty if I do say so myself!

The past few days we've managed to entertain ourselves with shopping, dining out and seeing a movie. We've also spent a lot of time sitting around playing games on our computers and reading. But mostly we've been trying to stay warm! Our fireplace and space heater have been kept busy, I even turned on the furnace this morning.

Along with the colder temperatures we've had no sun for days and we have been lucky enough to even have some rain......

I read somewhere that 49 of the fifty states had snow! I'm thinking Florida was the only snowless state. I sure am glad we aren't in any of those other states. South Texas is cold enough and we come here for the warmth.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

I hope you didn't miss me to much. :) Just didn't feel like writing. Life here is laid back even though Jim is working. I think our social life has slowed down a bit which is ok by me but when there isn't anything to write about except housework I find it tedious to blog.

We did attend the New Year's Eve party here at the resort. It's always fun but most of us were ready to go home around 2200! After all we normally go to bed at this time!

Jim is enjoying the kayak trips and more folks are signing up for them. The resort is almost full.

We had some excitement awhile back. From our end of the resort we can see the parking lot for the Bentsen State Park and we noticed a fire the other day. Turned out it was a class C motor home. Fortunately the couple had left and were on their way to the park. They heard a pop, turned around and saw their home go up in flames. They lost almost everything. They're from Canada and can't return until they get passports and her ID.

They're staying here at our resort in a casita and many people supplied them with the necessary items to help them out the first couple of days. They now have a rental car and they recovered a few charred bins from the rig. I'm told their insurance company is covering the full price of the 4 month old rig.